Foldable containers



3 Sheets-Sheet l M. M. HECHTMANN ETAL FOLDABLE CONTAINERS March 5, 1968Filed Aug 10, 1966 INVENTORS MARTIN M. HECHTMAN ET HEL HERBST ATTORNEYSM5161! 1968 M. M. HECHTMANN ETAL 3,37

FOLDABLE CONTAINERS Filed Aug. 10, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

' INVENTORS MARTIN MHECHTMAN BY ETHEL HERBST ATTORNEY March 1958 M. M.HECHTMANN ETAL 3,

FOLDABLE CONTAINERS 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 10, 1966 INVENTORSMARTIN M. HECHTMAN ETHEL HERBST ATTORNEYS United States Patent FiledAug. 10, 1966, Ser.No. 571,542

Claims. Cl. 229-33 The present invention relates to foldable containers.

More particularly, the present invention relates to con tainers whichare adapted to be formed from sheet structures which initially have thecondition of a flat blank and which can be folded from this initialcondition into a condition forming a container adapted to house anydesired contents.

One of the inconveniences conventionally encountered with containers ofthis type is that it is essential to keep on hand a plurality of blanksof different sizes in order to provide containers of different sizes.Thus, it becomes necessary for the manufacturer of the containers tomanu facture blanks of various different sizes according to the desiredsize of the container and it also becomes necessary for the purchaser ofthe blanks to purchase and store a large number of blanks of differentsizes in order to provide containers of different sizes.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a container ofthe above general type which is capable of assuming two different sizesdepending upon the manner in which the blank is folded from its initialflat condition.

It is furthermore an object of the present invention to provide acontainer structure capable of being folded from an expanded size to asmaller contracted size in a substantially foolproof manner which doesnot require a special folding technique;

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a containerstructure which can be folded in either of two different Ways from anexpanded to a contracted condition so that irrespective of the manner offolding the container can be displaced between its expanded andcontracted conditions providing the large and small sizes of thecontainer, respectively.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a blankof relatively simple inexpensive construction which will fulfill theabove objects.

Furthermore, it. is an object of the invention to provide for acontainer of the above type having side walls which can be fastenedtogether either in the expanded or contracted condition of the containeras well as a cover which can be displaced between a large size and asmall size to close the container either in its expanded or in itscontracted condition, respectively.

The container of the invention primarily consists of a sheet structurewhich initially has the form of a fiat blank and which can be foldedfrom its initial condition into a folded condition forming a containerhaving at least a bottom wall and side walls extending upwardly from thebottom wall at outer side edges of the latter. This bottom wall has fourside edges formed by two pairs of opposed parallel side edges and fourside walls in the form of two pairs of opposed parallel side wallsextending upwardly from the side edges of the bottom wall. In accordancewith the present invention the bottom wall includes a foldable meansextending diagonally across the bottom wall between one pair ofdiagonally opposed corners thereof for folding the bottom wall betweenan expanded condition and a contracted condition where the other of thepair of diagonally opposed corners thereof are situated closer to eachother than in the expanded condition of the bottom wall. Furthermore,this foldable means of the bottom wall maintains each pair of opposedside edges of the bottom wall and the side walls extending therefromparallel to each other in both conditions of the bottom wall.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanyingdrawings which form part of this application and in which:

FIG. 1 shows the blank of the present invention as it appears whenlooking toward that surface thereof which forms the exterior surface ofthe container of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective illustration of the blank of FIG. 1 folded toform the container of the invention, the container being shown in FIG. 2in its expanded condition providing the larger size of the container,and FIG. 2 also shows the cover of the container in an upstanding openposition;

FIG. 3A is a fragmentary section plan view taken along line 3A3A of FIG.2 in the direction of the arrows and showing the structure of FIG. 2 inthe region of one corner of the bottom wall;

FIG. 3B is a fragmentary sectional plan view taken I along line 3B3B ofFIG. 2 in the direction of the arrows and showing the structure of thecontainer at a corner thereof diagonally opposed from the corner shownin FIG. 3A;

FIG. 4A shows the structure of FIG. 3A after it has been folded toprovide the contracted condition of the container;

FIG. 4B shows the structure of FIG. 3B after it has been folded toprovide the contracted condition of the container, FIG. 4B showing thatcorner of the container which is diagonally opposed to that of FIG. 4A;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary transverse section taken along line 5-5 of FIG.4A in the direction of the arrows to show the folded condition of thebottom wall;

FIG. 6A shows the structure of FIG. 3A after it has been folded in amanner different from that shown in FIG. 4A also to provide a contractedcondition of the container;

FIG. 6B shows the structure of FIG. 3B folded in a manner different fromthat illustrated in FIG. 4B to also provide a contracted condition ofthe container, the structure shown in FIG. 6B being situated at a cornerof the container diagonally opposed to the structure shown in FIG. 6A;

FIG. 7 is a transverse section fragmentarily illustrating the foldedcondition of the container when it has been folded in the manner shownin FIGS. 6A and 6B, the section of FIG. 7 being taken along line 7-7 ofFIG. 6A in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 8 is a transverse sectional view of the container in its closedcondition illustrating the manner in which the cover cooperates with thecontainer in its expanded and contracted conditions, the section of FIG.8 being taken in a plane parallel to the front and rear side walls ofthe container.

Referring ot FIG. 1, the blank 10 of the invention is shown in FIG. 1 asit appears when looking toward the exterior surface of the blank 10,this surface forming the outside of the container into which the blank10 is folded. The blank 10 is made of a sheet structure which isflexible so that it can be folded and which may be made of paperboard,for example. This sheet structure can have a single thickness or it maybe formed from a plurality of laminations or plies which are joined toeach other in any suitable way, or it is even possible to utilize acorrugated sheet structure, for example.

The blank 10 includes a bottom wall 12 which is of a squareconfiguration. In FIG. 1 all of the free edges of the blank areindicated by solid lines while all of the fold lines are designated bydot-dash lines and are formed by suitable scoring of the blank. Thebottom wall 12 has a periphery defined by a front and rear pair ofparallel fold lines 14a and 14b and a second pair of parallel fold lines16a and 1612, these lines 14a, 14b, 16a, 16b forming the outer edges ofthe bottom wall 12. A front side wall 18a is adapted to extend upwardlyfrom the bottom wall at its edge 14a and a rear side wall 18b, which isparallel to the front side wall 18a is adapted to extend upwardly fromthe bottom wall 12 at its rear edge 14b. A lateral side wall 26a isadapted to extend upwardly from the bottom wall 12 at its side edge 16awhile another lateral side wall 20b is adapted to extend upwardly fromthe bottom wall 12 along its remaining side edge 16b.

In accordance with a particular feature of the present invention, thebottom wall has a foldable means enabling it to be folded between theexpanded condition shown in FIG. 1 and a contracted condition describedbelow, and this foldable means includes at one pair of diagonallyopposed corners of the bottom wall 12 a pair of square tabs 22a and 22b.The tab 22a is connected to the bottom wall 12 only by a fold line 24awhich extends perpendicularly from the edge 14a, while the tab 22b isconnected to the bottom wall solely by a tab fold line 24b which extendsperpendicularly from and inwardly of the rear fold line 14b which formsthe rear edge of the bottom wall 12. The bottom wall 12 includes aninner free edge 12a extending from the inner end of the tab fold line24a perpendicularly with respect to and up to the edge 16b of the bottomwall 12, and the bottom wall 12 has another free inner edge 12bextending from the inner end of the tab fold line 24b perpendicularlywith respect to and up to the opposed parallel edge 16a of the bottomwall 12. A first fold line 26a extends diagonally across the bottom wallfrom the inner end of the tab fold line 24a to that end of the free edge12b which is distant from the tab fold line 24b, while a second straightfold line 26b extends from the inner end of the tab fold line 24b up tothat end of the inner free edge 12a which is distant from the inner endof the tab fold line 24a. Thus, the free inner edges 12a and 12btogether with the first and second diagonal fold lines 26a and 26b ofthe bottom wall 12 define a parallelogram portion 40 of the bottom wall12 extending diagonally across the latter in the manner indicated inFIG. 1.

The side walls of the container include a fastening means for fasteningthem to each other in a condition extending upwardly from the outeredges of the bottom wall both when the bottom wall is in its expandedcondition as well as when it is in its contracted condition. Thisfastening means takes the form of a tongue-and-slit structure. Thus, thefront side wall 18:: has at one end a tongue 28 connected to the end ofthe wall 18a by a fold line 30 which forms an extension of the edge 16aof the bottom wall, and this tongue 28 is adapted to be received in aslit 32 which is formed in the side wall 20a. The side wall 20a has atongue 34 connected to the wall 20a by a pair of parallel fold lines 36and 38, the fold line 36 forming an extension of the edge 14b of thebottom wall while the fold line 38 forms an extension of the inner freeedge 12b of the bottom wall 12. The tongue 34 is adapted to be receivedin a slit 42 of the wall 18b when the tongue 34 is folded at the foldline 36, while the tongue 34 can be received in the slit 44 when foldedalong the line 38, this slit 44 also being formed in the rear side wall18b of the container.

The rear side wall 18b has at one end a tongue 46 which can be receivedin a slit 48 which is formed in the side wall 20a. At its opposite endthe rear side wall 18b has a tongue 50 connected to the rear wall 18b bya fold line 52 and capable of being received in a slit 54 formed in theside wall 20b. The tongue 46 at the other end of the rear side wall 18bis connected to the side wall 18b by a fold line 62 which forms anextension of the tab fold line 24B, while the fold line 52 of the tongue50 forms an extension of the edge 16b of the bottom wall 12.

The side wall 20b has a tongue 56 connected to the side wall 20b by apair of fold lines 58 and 60, and the front wall 18a is formed with aslit 64 capable of receiving the tongue 56 when it is folded at the foldline 58. Finally, the front wall 18a has a tongue 66 which is formedwith the slit 64, as shown in FIG. 1, and which is capable of beingreceived in a slit 68 formed in the side wall 20b.

The blank 10 is completed by a cover 70 which is connected with the rearside wall 18b by a fold line 72, and the cover 70 has three flaps '74,76 and 78. The length of the flap 74 corresponds to the length of theside wall 20b in the contracted condition of the bottom wall 12. Theflap 76 has a pair of fold lines 82 and 84 parallel to its outerlongitudinal edge 86, and it will be noted that the flap 74 is connectedto the cover 70 by a fold line 86. The length of the flap 76 alsocorresponds to the length of the front of the bottom wall in thecontracted condition thereof.

The flap 78 has a length corresponding to the length of the side wall20a in the contracted condition of the bottom wall, and this flap 78 isconnected to the cover 70 by an inner fold line 88 and has anintermediate fold line 98 situated between and parallel to the fold line88 and the outer longitudinal edge 92 of the flap 78.

The cover is completed by a tab 94 connected only to the flap 78 by afold line 96 which extends between the fold lines 88 and forming anextension of the fold line 82, as indicated in FIG. 1.

The blank 10 can be folded in an expanded condition to provide acontainer of relatively large size, or it can be folded further to acontracted condition so as to provide a container of relatively smallsize. The blank 10 is shown in FIG. 2 as well as FIGS. 3A and 3B foldedto provide the container of relatively large size. For thi purpose thefront and rear walls 18a and 18b are respe tively folded upwardly alongthe front and rear edges 14a and 14b of the bottom wall 12 to assume thecondition indicated in FIG. 2 and the tongues 28 and 50 are insertedthrough the slits 32 and 54, respectively, at one of the pairs ofdiagonally opposed corners of the bottom wall 12. Of course, the lateralside walls 20a and 2012 have in the meantime also been folded upwardlyalong the edges 16a and 16b of the bottom wall 12.

At the right front corner of the bottom wall 12 as viewed in FIG. 2 andas is shown in FIG. 3A, the tongue 56 of the side wall 20b extends alongthe exterior of the tongue 66 of the front side wall 18a and is receivedin the slit 64, the tongue 66 being bent in the manner indicated in FIG.3a. The tab 22a remains in the plane of the bottom wall 12, and the sameis true of the parallelogram portion 40 thereof.

At the diagonally opposed corner, where the tab 22b is situated, thetongue 34 of the other lateral side wall 20a extends along the exteriorof the tongue 46 and is received in the slit 42 of the rear side wall18b, while the tongue 46 is bent in the manner shown in FIG. 3B, and ofcourse at this time the tab 22b is also situated in the plane of thebottom wall 12. Therefore, in this simple way the blank is set up toform the container of relatively large size.

As may be seen in FIG. 2, the flap 74 of the cover 70 is folded inwardlyalong the fold line 80. The flaps 76 and 78, however, are folded alongtheir intermediate fold lines 84 and 90, respectively, so that in thisway the cover 70 is given its larger size corresponding to the size ofthe bottom wall 12 in the expanded condition thereof shown in FIG. 2. Atthis time the tab 94 is situated in the same plane as the cover 70.

Therefore, with the container set up in the expanded condition shown inFIG. 2, providing the larger size thereof, when it is desired to closethe container it is only necessary to turn the cover down around theupper edge 72 of the rear side wall 18b, and the front flap 76 willbecome situated alongside the front wall 18a while the side flaps 74 and78 will become situated alongside and will overlap the side walls 20band 20a, respectivel In order to provide the container with its smallersize, it may be folded into the condition shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B. Forthis purpose, the tongues 28 and 50 can still be placed in the slits 32and 54, since nothing is changed at the pair of diagonally opposedcorners of the bottom wall where this fastening means is situated.However, at the pair of diagonally opposed corners where the tabs 22aand 22b are situated operations are carried out to provide the containerwith its smaller size. Thus, at the front right corner, as viewed inFIG. 2, the tab 22a is folded along its fold line 2411 against the innersurface of the bottom wall before the side walls are fastened to eachother at their diagonally opposed corners where the tabs 22a and 22b aresituated. With the tab 22a thus folded downwardly against the bottomwall 12 at the inner surface thereof, as indicated in FIG. 4A, the bottom wall is folded around the fold line 26a, displacing the fold line26b toward the corner where the tongue 28 issituated, and this foldingof the bottom wall is continued until the bottom wall has the conditionshown in FIG. 5 where the parallelogram portion 40 thereof is situatedover that region of the bottom wall which adjoins the fold line 26a andbeneath that region thereof which adjoins the fold line 26b, asindicated in FIG. 5. The result is that the inner free edge 12a of thebottom wall now becomes located over the fold line 24a of the tab 22a.The tongue 56 at the front end of the lateral side wall b now issituated inwardly of the front wall 18a, and instead it is the tongue 66of the latter which extends along the exterior of the lateral side wall20b and is inserted through the slit 68 so as to connect the side walls18a and 20b in the manner shown in FIG. 4A. If desired, the tongue 66could be situated inwardly of the wall 20b and instead the wall 18acould be provided with an additional slit to receive the tongue 56.

At the corner which is diagonally opposed to that shown in FIG. 4A, andwhich is of course illustrated in FIG. 4B, the same folding action takesplace with the result that the tab 22b now extends upwardly from it foldline 24b along the inner surface of the tongue 46 which is shownsituated inwardly of the wall 20a, and of course the fold line 24b forthe tab 22b is situated over the inner free edge 12b at this time. Thetongue 34 of the lateral side wall 20a is now received in the inner slit44. In this case also, if desired, the tongue 46 could be situatedoutwardly of the tongue 34 along the exterior of the wall 20a in whichcase it would be received in the slit 48 shown in FIG. 1. Thus, withthis construction the operator has the option of connecting either atongue of the rear wall to a slit in a side wall or a tongue in a sidewall to .a slit in a rear wall, and of course the same feature could beprovided at the front corner shown in FIG. 4A, as pointed out above.

It is not essential that the bottom wall 12 be folded in the mannershown in FIGS. 4A and 4B in order to be placed in its contractedcondition. Thus, as indicated in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the bottom wall canhave its parallelogram portion 40 folded around the fold line 26b so asto overlie the portion of the bottom wall adjoining the fold line 26b,as indicated in FIG. 7, and now the portion of the bottom wall 12adjoining the fold line 26a is folded back to overlie the parallelogramportion 40. To provide this second contracted condition of the bottomwall, where it will have the same size as in the contracted condition ofFIGS. 4A and 4B, the tab 22b is folded along its fold line 24bdownwardly against the inner surface of the bottom wall and then thebottom wall is folded around the fold line 26b to have the conditionshown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, as well as FIG. 7, and at this time the tab22a will extend upwardly from the bottom wall along the inner surface ofthe side wall 20b. The tongue 56 is still situated along the innersurface of the front wall 18a and the tongue 66 is again received in theslit 68, as indicated in FIG. 6A. At the diagonally opposed corner shownin FIG. 6B, the tongue 34 is situated along the inner surface of therear wall 18b, and the tongue 46 of the rear wall 18b is received in theslit 48 of the lateral side wall 20a. In this case also, if desired, thetongue 46 could be situated inwardly of the wall 20a and the tongue 34could be passed again through the slit 44, and of course an additionalslit could be provided in the wall 18a to receive the tongue 56 in theevent that it is desired to situate the latter tongue at the exterior ofthe front wall in which case the tongue 66 would be situated along theinner surface of the lateral side wall 20b.

The particular construction shown is preferred since in this way thefront wall 18 has no slits or tongues of adjoining walls connectedthereto when the container is set up in its contracted condition.

In either of the contracted conditions of the container, the cover 70will have the smaller size indicated in FIG. 8 which is a transversesection through the opposed lateral side walls in a plane parallel tothe rear wall 18b and the front wall 18a between these walls. It will beseen from FIG. 8 that the container is; shown in the contractedcondition of FIGS. 4A, 4B and. 5. At this time the flap 74 still extendsalong the side wall 20b. However, the flap 78 is now folded twice sothat it is folded along its inner fold line 88, and the intermediatefold line 90 now forms the bottom edge of the flap which is folded in acondition of double thickness, as indicated in FIG. 8. The expandedcondition of the container is shown in dot-dash lines in FIG. 8. Whenthe container is folded to the contracted condition shown in FIGS. 6A,6B and 7, the cover will still have the condition shown in FIG. 8, andthe only difference will be in the folded condition of the bottom wall,as is apparent from a comparison of FIGS. 5 and 7. I

Thus, with the simple structure of the invention it is possible to foldthe blank 10 either into the relatively large size container shown inFIG. 2, or into a relatively small size container as indicated in FIG.'8, and the folding can take place in a foolproof manner since it makesno difference whether the diagonal portion 40 is folded about one or theother of the diagonal fold lines 26a or 26b.

What is claimed is:

1. A container consisting of a foldable sheet structure which initiallyhas the form of a flat blank and which can be folded from said blankinto a container having a flat bottom wall and side walls extendingupwardly therefrom, said bottom wall having a periphery defined by twopairs of opposed parallel side edges and said bottom wall also includingtwo pairs of diagonally opposed corners, and said sheet structureincluding foldable means extending diagonally across said bottom wallbetween one of said pairs of opposed corners for displacing said bottomwall between an expanded condition where said bottom wall has no foldsand the other of said pairs of opposed corners are relatively distantfrom each other and a contracted condition where said bottom wall is ina partly folded condition and said other pair of opposed corners arecloser to each other than in said expanded condition, so that saidfoldable means of said bottom wall enables the container to assume twodifferent sizes.

2. A container as recited in claim 1 and wherein said side walls includemeans for fastening said side walls to each other either in the expandedor the contracted condition of said bottom wall with said side wallsextending upwardly from said bottom wall in both conditions thereof.

3. A container as recited in claim 1 and wherein said sheet structureincludes a cover connected by a fold line to one of said side wallsalong an outer edge thereof distant from said bottom wall and turnablewith respect to said one side wall between a position overlying saidbottom wall to close said container and an open position displaced awayfrom said bottom wall to give access to the space surrounded by saidside walls.

4. A container as recited in claim 3 and wherein said cover includesmeans for changing the size of the cover between a large sizecorresponding to that of said bottom wall in said expanded conditionthereof and a small size corresponding to that of said bottom wall insaid contracted condition thereof.

5. A container as recited in claim 4 and wherein said cover includesalong three sides thereof flaps which overl-ap all of the side wallsexcept that one to which said cover is foldably connected in the closedposition of said cover, all of said flaps having a length equal to thatof said side walls when said bottom wall is in said contracted conditionthereof and that one of said flaps which is opposed to said one sidewall to which said cover is foldably connected and one of the remainingflaps being formed with a pair of parallel fold lines extending parallelto outer longitudinal edges of the latter two flaps so that each of thelatter two flaps has inwardly of its outer longitudinal edge a pair offold lines one of whichis an intermediate fold line situated between aninner fold line and the outer longitudinal edge of the flap, wherebyeach of the latter two fiaps can be folded at its intermediate line toprovide the larger size of the cover and at its inner line to providethe smaller size of the cover.

6. A oontainer as recited in claim 5 and wherein said cover includes atab of rectangular configuration foldably connected with one of thelatter two flaps and extending from an end thereof and from the regionbetween its fold lines alongside the region of the other of the lattertwo flaps between the fold lines of the latter when the cover is in itslarger size condition, said tab being folded inwardly and overlappingsaid one of said latter two flaps when the cover is in its smaller sizecondition, whereby said tab completes the covering of said bottom wallby said cover when the latter has its larger size condition.

7. A container as recited in claim 1 and wherein said means for foldingsaid bottom wall between its expanded and contracted condition includesa pair of tabs respectively forming part of said bottom wall andsituated at said one pair of diagonally opposed corners thereof, saidtabs being connected with said bottom wall only by a pair of fold lineswhich extend perpendicularly inwardly from one of said pair of opposedparallel side edges of said bottom wall so that the latter tab foldlines respectively have inner ends situated inwardly of the latter pairof side edges of said bottom wall, respectively, and said bottom wallincluding inner free edges extending from said inner ends of said tabfold lines perpendicularly up to the other of the pairs of opposed sideedges of said bottom wall, respectively, said means for folding saidbottom wall between its contracted and expanded conditions including afirst straight fold line extending from the inner end of one of said tabfold lines diagonally across said bottom wall to an outer end of thatone of said inner free edges of said bottom wall which extendsperpendicularly from the other of said tab fold lines and a secondstraight fold line extending from said inner end of the other of saidtab fold lines diagonally across said bottom wall to an outer end of theother inner free edge of said bottom wall which is distant from saidinner end of said one tab fold line.

8. A container as recited in claim 7 and wherein said first and seconddiagonal fold lines are parallel to each other and define with saidinner free edges of said bottom wall a parallelogram portion having apair of opposed relatively short sides formed by said inner free edgesof said bottom wall and a pair of opposed parallel long sides formed bysaid first and second diagonal fold lines, said parallelogram portion ofsaid bottom wall being foldable around either one of said first andsecond diagonal fold lines so that when folded around said first foldline said parallelogram portion will overlie the area of said bottomwall immediately adjacent said first fold line and the remainder of saidbottom Wall can be folded back around said second fold line to overliesaid parallelogram portion while when said bottom wall is folded withsaid parallelogram portion thereof around said second diagonal fold linesaid parallelogram portion will overlie the region of said bottom wallwhich is adjacent said second fold line and can be folded back aroundsaid first fold line so that the portion of said bottom wall adjacentsaid first fold line will overlie said parallelogram portion of saidbottom wall, whereby in either of the contracted conditions of saidbottom wall said parallelogram portion thereof will be situated betweenadjacent portions of said bottom wall.

9. A container as recited in claim 8 and wherein said side walls includefastening means for fastening said side walls to each other in positionsextending upwardly from said bottom wall both when it is in its expandedcondition as well as when it is in either of said contracted conditions.

10. A container as recited in claim 9 and wherein said fastening meansincludes cooperating slit and tongue structures carried by said sidewalls in the regions of said corners.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,251,532 5/1966 Hechtman 22933FOREIGN PATENTS 970,495 9/1964 Great Britain.

DONALD F. NORTON, Primary Examiner.

1. A CONTAINER CONSISTING OF A FOLDABLE SHEET STRUCTURE WHICH INITIALLYHAS THE FORM OF A FLAT BLANK AND WHICH CAN BE FOLDED FROM SAID BLANKINTO A CONTAINER HAVING A FLAT BOTTOM WALL AND SIDE WALLS EXTENDINGUPWARDLY THEREFROM, SAID BOTTOM WALL HAVING A PERIPHERY DEFINED BY TWOPAIRS OF OPPOSED PARALLEL SIDE EDGES AND SAID BOTTOM WALL ALSO INCLUDINGTOW PAIRS OF DIAGONALLY OPPOSED CORNERS, AND SAID SHEET STRUCTUREINCLUDING FOLDABLE MEANS EXTENDING DIAGONALLY ACROSS SAID BOTTOM WALLBETWEEN ONE OF SAID PAIRS OF OPPOSED CORNERS FOR DISPLACING SAID BOTTOMWALL BETWEEN AN EXPANDED CONDITION WHERE SAID BOTTOM WALL HAS NO FOLDSAND THE OTHER OF SAID PAIRS OF OPPOSED CORNERS ARE RELATIVELY DISTNATFROM EACH OTHER AND A CONTRACTED CONDITION WHERE SAID BOTTOM WALL IS INA PARTLY FOLDED CONDITION AND SAID OTHER PAIR OF OPPOSED CORNERS ARECLOSER TO EACH OTHER THAN IN SAID EXPANDED CONDITION, SO THAT SAIDFOLDABLE MEANS OF SAID BOTTOM WALL ENABLES THE CONTAINER TO ASSUME TWODIFFERENT SIZES.